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“What are you going to do?”

Regan was silent, and Caleb answered. “We go of course. We get Catrin out of there, and then we kill the bastard.”

“Or we die trying,” Regan repeated his words from earlier that morning.

“Let the Council help you,” Kael said.

Regan shook her head. “We can’t—he’ll kill Catrin. Or worse—he’ll take her back to where he came from, and we’ll never see her again. Never know whether she’s alive or dead.” She stared Kael in the eyes. “You lived through that with your sister. I won’t let it happen to mine.”

Kael’s gaze narrowed. Then he nodded. “So, what is the plan? Can you beat this guy?”

“I don’t know.”

Kael crossed the room and poured out three glasses of amber liquid. “It’s early in the day, but I think we need this.” He brought the drinks across and handed one to Caleb and the other to Regan. She sank onto the sofa beside him, the box clutched in her free hand.

Caleb swallowed the drink in one gulp. The warmth of the liquid flowed down his throat and settled in his stomach. Regan did the same. She glanced at her empty glass, then his, whispered a word and they were full again.

“You know,” Kael said, “we’ll help in any way we can, but this thing is bigger than your sister. He needs to be stopped. We can’t risk the chance that he’ll make you cooperate.”

“He won’t.”

“That’s not enough. We need some proof.”

Caleb looked him in the eyes, eyes so like his own. “Our word is enough. Regan will never do what he asks. We’ll die first.”

“But will she stand by and watch you tortured? Or her own sister?”

“I know my duty,” Regan said coldly.

Caleb glanced at her, watched as she stroked her finger along the smooth wood of the box. “I loved Sardi once, but that didn’t stop me from trying to destroy him for what he was.”

Kael stared at her for long minutes, and then nodded.

“Okay. You need time to think about all this, but I’ll speak to you later today. Hopefully you’ll have more of a plan.”

He stood up and walked to the door. At the last second, he turned. “Caleb?”

Caleb had been watching Regan; now he turned to face Kael. “Yes?”

“We should talk,” Kael said. “Before tonight.”

Caleb searched the other man’s face. So far, there were no signs of the enmity Kael had shown that first time they met. But he also sensed that things would never be truly easy between them, and he was surprised by the sadness that thought brought. Maybe his mother was alive, but if not, this man was now his only living relative. All his life he’d longed to find his mother’s family. Of course, back then he’d believed her to be human, not some immortal shapeshifter.

What was an immortal shapeshifter anyway?

Suddenly, he wanted to know.

If he was going to die, then he wanted to know what he was first. He wanted to know what his mother had been, what she was like.

He possessed no illusions. From the sound of it, there was a good chance they would not survive the night. He was reconciled to that. Well, maybe not reconciled. He’d finally found someone he wanted to spend his life with, at the point when his life was, in all likelihood, just about over. He wanted Regan, but if that wasn’t to be, then as long as he took that bastard Sardi with him, he could die content.

He also needed to make sure that if he didn’t survive the night then the Council would look after his wolves. Ensure that the pack was no longer on the outside of the supernatural world but part of it.

Now Caleb looked at Kael, standing at the open door. “I’ll see you later,” he said.

“Good. Any of the guards will know where to find me.” He turned to Regan. “I’m sorry about your sister.” Then he was gone.

As soon as the door shut behind Kael, Regan turned to him and buried her face in his chest. Her drink spilled, soaking his shirt, and the scent of brandy saturated the air.